


Stay

by konpeito_galaxy



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, End Game Spoilers, Multi, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2021-01-16 04:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21264752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/konpeito_galaxy/pseuds/konpeito_galaxy
Summary: Drabble based on prompt: an alternate trial 6 scenario. The mastermind uses a different tactic to persuade the survivors to stay in the school.





	Stay

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt via ask from mystic-mints: Putting aside the new questions it would raise, if Tsumugi had cosplayed their dead friends to convince them to stay, my heart would've shattered (in the best way possible). How would they even react?
> 
> I did this near the beginning of the year but I liked it enough to archive it now. It's a bit short, but I still like it so ~

For a moment, Shuichi thought he had been blinded. The figure standing proud at the podium had shifted once again in a bombastic flash of white and yellow, and then his eyes had filled with painful, bitter tears. Somewhere beside him, he heard Himiko cry out like she had been slapped.

“It’s just as I said before! Let’s make this school a wonderful paradise, together!”

“No… no no no no no… _no no no no no -_”

“Atua says,” Angie Yonaga cooed over Himiko, whose knees had started knocking together, “that it isn’t too late for us all to cooperate! If we can come together now, after all of this hardship, you will all surely be blessed!”

“That’s not - Angie, Himiko.” Maki’s voice shook with effort. It sounded so, so far away, lost to the sound of his [fictional] blood pumping in his ears. “It’s not Angie - you know that -”

“I know,” Himiko babbled, “I know it isn’t, it can’t be, it, it can’t be -”

There was another flurry of clothing, and Tenko emerged from it with a squeal of excitement. “Just like that, Himiko! Finally, you’re expressing yourself - I’m so proud of you! Ooh, even Himiko’s despairing face is cute!”

Himiko let out a pained whine like a deflating balloon and threw up on her podium.

Maki and K1-b0 shouted for her. Shuichi should have - meant to - but his voice had died in his throat. His entire body had shut down in silent horror. Kaede’s presence should have been a comfort to him; a grounding presence. It had been, when they had discovered the first body. This time, it wasn’t.

“We should just stay together!” she said, pumping her fists. “You’ve found the truth of this world, just like you promised. Isn’t that enough?”

The figure Angie had made of her had lacked the warmth of the real Kaede. This imitation should have been the same. So why? Why did looking at her like this make him tremble?

“Even if the truth was just a big lie after all,” Kokichi added cheerfully. “Lies have never been the enemy. Y’know, especially seeing that some of your best friends were lies ~ and that’s the truth! You understand that now, don’t you?”

_I failed you,_ Shuichi wanted to say. The portrait of the real Kokichi Ouma stared him down with that same inscrutable smile beside where Himiko wept. _I failed you so, so badly. What would you do if you were here?_

… What would he do -

“You bitch!” Shuichi flinched and squeezed his eyes shut, Maki’s shriek ringing in his ears. “I’ll kill you - !”

“C’mon, don’t be like that.” Shuichi didn’t have to look. He didn’t need to look. The strength that voice filled him with was familiar - and a goddamn lie, like everything else. “You don’t have to think hard about it. Let me take the responsibility of the decision off your shoulders, like a real hero should.”

He shook. He opened his eyes despite his better judgment, and the wavering, blurred figure shot him a winning smile and a thumbs-up. Shuichi choked.

“Hey, Shuichi? Harumaki? Let’s stay together. I _want_ us to stay… together.”


End file.
